Note to Self #3 – This Is Not The End of the Journey

Dear T,

You’ve only had one calling ever since you remember – to write your way into this world. Living in an imaginative bubble, your best friends growing up were books, paper, a pencil and your sister’s old typewriter. You were always good at languages and the written word in school but did not have a strong affinity toward other subjects. The one dream you had as a young’un was to become a writer/reporter. Your dad used to encourage you to keep reading and writing and you would send letters to the editor and short stories for story-writing competitions to the local children’s magazine and was even fortunate enough to have a couple of them published. You had dreams of writing a novel a la Enid Blyton or even starting your own magazine someday.

However, when you came to a big crossroad in your life called ‘choosing a career’, the path you chose took your further away from your passions. Although your father was very encouraging of writing as a creative hobby, he did not believe that you would have been able to handle the pressures of a journalism career or make enough money. Eventually, after much discussion and many arguments later, you ended up picking Commerce of which you had no idea of or aptitude for.

Since this turning point, you have definitely learned some hard and harsh lessons along the way:

1. Don’t let one wrong decision ruin your entire life. Develop a fighting spirit.
Not planning an alternative route to get to your dream is something which you didn’t think of at the time. Unfortunately, you gave up too easily when things didn’t go your way. Had you continued writing, you would have built a sizable portfolio of work by the time you graduated from college. This has made you realize that you should never give up something you love doing. Do it for the love of the craft even if no one supports your decision or even if you cannot make a career out of it. Your craft will keep you sane.

2. Just because you’re weak at something doesn’t mean you can’t learn it.
Fear and anxiety have been a part of your intrinsic make up since early childhood. You’ve had no problem coming up with concepts and ideas but putting them into action has always been a big challenge for you. The most important lesson you have recently learned is that even with fewer strengths and many weaknesses, your confidence increases when you know you’re good at something and are doing it right. So keep pursuing your craft, developing it, making mistakes and learning from it. Find that one thing you’re good at and work on it tirelessly.

3. Don’t get dejected, depressed or stressed. Just keep going and make the best with what you’ve got.
After you graduated from college in travel and tourism (which was truly a fun course!), you were quite lost and it wasn’t just because of the recession that came at that exact moment. Your right-brained creative mind was fighting against a 9-5 desk job and you found yourself not wanting to apply for jobs in your field. Your heart was still set on a career in the media field which could give you creative job satisfaction but your stubbornness to accept reality kept pulling you backward. Recently a dear friend who you truly admire mentioned that she made the best of whatever situation she was in. This made you realize that you didn’t have to stay stuck on a single track. It’s not always, ‘my way or the highway’ rather it’s about finding a middle ground.

4. If you really love something, your calling will keep calling! Don’t let it become a missed call again.
Who says dreams cannot come true? Finally, last year, you were able to complete your Masters in Media and Communication and it was the best decision you could ever have taken because it reintroduced you to a side you thought had completely died. Sure, you could have made better decisions while pursuing this course but the basic skills you learned like graphic designing, editing, writing, photography, creating publications et cetera brought out your fun and creative streak. This blog which was initially part of that course is now an essential part of your life. Writing and expressing yourself here has made you more confident and this is one form of expression that given time and lots of practice, you could develop further to give you the creative satisfaction that you have always dreamed of.

Each of the wrong turns you took 15 years ago have luckily taught you many important things in their wake. The most important lesson here is not to doubt your abilities even if things don’t go your way. The wrong pathway is not the end of the journey. You can always find your way back again. I hope, T you will remember this.

Much love,
Tx

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